A typical doctor receives four years of undergraduate education, four years of medical school, anywhere from three to ten years of training including residency, as well as a fellowship if the individual decides to specialize. Through these years of education, students obtain the knowledge and skills that are necessary for them to properly inform their patients and the general public on medical issues.
They train in order to be the most informed people in their discipline. However, more and more, I see people who discredit this vast amount of education in order to follow rules from a book or even from the Internet instead of following their educated physicians.
If we demand such high standards from our health care professionals, we owe it to them to have some faith in what they say.
Starting this fall, there has been an uptake in the number of doctors, the majority being pediatricians and doctors in family practices, refusing to see unvaccinated children.
This is because they believe unvaccinated children may present a risk of outbreaks that could harm other patients. And while many parents support this decision, some argue the science is still shaky on vaccines and claim doctors are part of a conspiracy with pharmaceutical companies.
One women even claimed that after not agreeing with her pediatrician, she sought out an alternative-medicine doctor who echoed her fears.
This is part of the problem. Doctors are educated, and their goal above all else is to keep their patients healthy. Those four years of additional schooling are not filled with countless nights drinking but a lot of time devoted to the inner workings of the body and the drugs that we are using to treat it. They will know more about any of these topics than any layman off the street.
And they should. I, for one, want an educated doctor and know that I can’t make all the decisions without some form of guidance right now.
This isn’t saying parents shouldn’t take an avid interest in researching medical options for their children. It also isn’t recommending to put blind trust your doctor.
You should get second opinions, and maybe even third or fourth ones if you think it’s best. But at some point, we need to realize that we, as in the general public, are not trained to know.
Someone with little to no scientific knowledge beyond a high school level may not be able to understand the complexities of a journal article. After all of my science classes, I still have difficulty understanding the long term effects of these studies. However, doctors are trained to do this.
I don’t doubt people’s ability to think for themselves or parents’ love for their children.
When I’m having a plumbing problem, I usually don’t trust myself to do more than plunge the toilet because I’m too scared of doing damage. And that’s just my plumbing.
For my body and my health, I sure as hell am going to have as many professional opinions as possible.
npatwari@indiana.edu
